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A bromance is more than a friendship: it carries a whiff of the illicit, the sudden and the unexpected – the bombshell “pash” of (usually) one straight man for another. The love-in between Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron in Washington this week has been a textbook case and quite extraordinary to witness.

We have watched agog as the American president has alternately gushed over his handsome visitor like a lovesick schoolgirl, then tried to recover some macho poise, then come over all bashful and simpering again. Meanwhile, the two leaders’ wives smiled tightly in the background looking, as some internet wags noted, as glum as the women in divorce-era Abba.